Tuesday, 3 July 2012

IRAN DEFENSE NEWS

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Iran successfully used missiles with long, medium and short ranges during the main phase of "The Great Prophet 7" drills on Tuesday.

The missiles targeted and destroyed hypothetical bases of ultra-regional forces set up in dessert areas in this central Iranian province.

This is the second day of the drills underway by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

The IRGC is also to use Balestic missiles simultaneously in different locations.

New domestically manufactured

warships to

join

Iranian Navy

The commander of the Iranian Navy has announced that

new domestically manufactured warships, destroyers,

and submarines will be delivered to the Navy in the near

future, the Navy said in a report on Sunday.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - “The world should be aware that despite all sanctions, the Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran plays the leading role in building vessels and manufactures the required equipment in the country,” Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said, “We are not in the habit of invading the borders and undermining the interests of others, but we are in the habit of being present, so we are present on the open seas of the world and will expand our presence day by day.”

On the Navy’s policy of sending navy fleets to international waters, Sayyari said that naval vessels are dispatched to the open seas, including the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean, in order to maintain the security of international shipping lanes and combat piracy.

In addition, he said that the other purpose of the presence of Iranian navy fleets in international waters is to display the country’s technological and manufacturing capabilities.

Iran Gains

Fresh

Technical Info

from US

Drone

ranian experts

have managed to

access and decode

more information

from the United

States'

sophisticated

RQ-170 Sentinel

stealth drone that

was downed by

Iran

in December 2011, ...

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Iranian experts have managed to access and decode more information from the United States' sophisticated RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone that was downed by Iran in December 2011, Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi announced on Sunday.

Vahidi said Tehran is working on the detailed information and technical specifications of the RQ-170, and added, "New achievements have been made in this regard, but we don't intend to make them public."

In April, senior Iranian military officials announced that the country's experts have decoded the intelligence gathering system and memory hard discs of the United States' highly advanced

Then, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Forces Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh revealed some data taken from the aircraft's intelligence system to discourage his counterparts in Pentagon who had alleged that Iranians would not succeed in decoding the spy drone's memory and intelligence devices.

"This plane is seen as a national capital for us and our words should not disclose all the information that we have very easily," Hajizadeh told FNA in April.

The unmanned surveillance plane lost by the United States in Iran was a stealth aircraft being used for secret missions by the CIA.

The aircraft is among the highly sensitive surveillance platform in the CIA's fleet that was shaped and designed to evade enemy defenses.

The drone is the first such loss by the US.

The RQ-170 has special coatings and a batwing shape designed to help it penetrate other nations' air defenses undetected. The existence of the aircraft, which is made by Lockheed Martin, has been known since 2009, when a model was photographed at the main US airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

The revelation came after Russia and China asked Tehran to provide them with information on the capture US drone.

Ahmad Karimpour, an adviser to Iran's defense minister, said earlier that Tehran has received requests from many countries for information on the RQ-170 Sentinel, but Moscow and Beijing have been most aggressive in their pursuit of details on the drone.

How serious

is the Zionist

regime in its

anti-Iran

threats?

Analysts and

political experts in

the region have

been

focusing on how

serious the threats

of the Zionist

regime

in recent days are.

They want to

uncover the hidden

motivations of such

harsh rhetoric

especially given

the

fact that the

Zionist regime has

never been

involved in

any direct war with

Iran.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Analysts believe that the threats aim to attain two goals: one inside the Zionist regime territory to convince residents of townships that the regime is facing very serious crises and the second to trigger the Americans ahead of presidential elections with the aim of gaining advantages over them.

The Zionist press plays a big role in highlighting and overstating the threats by focusing on causes of formation of a collation cabinet by the Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which made the issue of an early elections virtually meaningless.

Many of the analyses published by these media and press are identical as if they have been authored by a single person. They all want to convey the message that the coalition cabinet is getting ready for another war which will start with an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and as such Zionists have to be highly prepared to confront Iran’s attacks and also the internal challenges following the attacks.

Nevertheless, all this ballyhoo has produced adverse outcomes because many political experts believe that they only serve the purpose of psychological warfare. They say Zionist officials, in harmony with the West pressures, want to negatively affect the process of upcoming talks in Baghdad between Iran and the 5+1.

Political experts face many doubts as for the authenticity of the Zionist regime threats. They wonder why a country which is preparing to attack another one should announce the exact date of its attacks and then ask the country to get ready to respond to them. Or if a cabinet is formed with the main purpose of starting a war why a number of anti-war figures should be included in it as ministers?

Even if one assumes that the conceit of the Zionist regime leaders deceives them into attacking such a big and great country as Iran, then the question still remains that in that case will they be foolish enough to ignore Iran’s missile might? Maybe they believe in the nonsense published in some of their newspapers that in case of a war with Iran the Zionist regime will lose only 200-3000 of its people.

How is the Zionist regime to survive Iran’s missiles while it was unable to confront Hizbullah in an ordinary war and had to suffer the disgrace of a shameful defeat. It seems they think Iran’s warnings are hollow like their own threats.

Supposing that there are some wise people present in the Zionist regime structure, then it will appear that its threats are aimed at provoking the US prior to Baghdad meeting in May 23.

Is Imam

Khamenei’s

anti-nuclear

fatwa,

real or a

white lie?

World powers have frequently accused Islamic Republic of Iran for making efforts to achieve nuclear weapons while Iranian officials have frequently stressed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programs before the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with nuclear scientists, announced ownership and use of nuclear weapons to be Haram (forbidden in Islamic law) calling that a big sin.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Head of the Research Center for Fiq’h Affairs in Iran’s Parliament stressed it as a duty for the Iranian nation to base their policies, views and efforts in line with purification of the world from Atomic weapons.

He said the fatwa issued by the Supreme Leader regarding ban on production and use of nuclear weapons is in fact based on three clear Fiq’h laws.

Islam, due to its logic, based on saving man and avoiding outbreak of war, opposes production of nuclear weapons.

Islam has logical and basic rules in opposition with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) which catastrophically endangers the lives of masses of people or the environment.

Weapons of mass destruction lead the wars to an uncontrollable situation with huge numbers of victims and unimaginable range of destruction which might drag beyond one era of time and one generation of people.

World powers have frequently accused Islamic Republic of Iran for making efforts to achieve nuclear weapons while Iranian officials have frequently stressed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programs before the Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with nuclear scientists, announced ownership and use of nuclear weapons to be Haram (forbidden in Islamic law) calling that a big sin.

His Excellency rejected the rationality that having nuclear weapon is a token of power and added, “Undoubtedly the decision making organizations in the countries opposing us fully know that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons and that Islamic Republic of Iran bans having nuclear weapons in ideological, theoretical and Fiq’h terms.

Islamic Republic of Iran intends to prove to the world that having nuclear weapons is not a sign of power or one’s determination is not dependent on having nuclear weapons; therefore, it is possible to beat a power which is based on nuclear weapons and Islamic Republic of Iran will do that.

An analysis of the fatwa by the Supreme Leader is the topic discussed with Hujjat-ol-Islam Ahmad Moballeghi, Head of the Research Center for Fiq’h Affairs in Iran’s Parliament.

Q: Fatwa issued by the Supreme Leader of Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, banning the use of nuclear weapons sent a wave across the world that could not be ignored even by the western media even though they tried to fade out the positive impacts of this religious statement. The fatwa in fact became the foundation for some diplomatic negotiations but the enemies to undermine the statement to be “subject to time and place limitation” or to be applicable “under special conditions” or even that it is “dissimulating”. Could you please explain in what conditions a Shia fatwa can be changed and is a change of fatwa applicable for a statement like the leadership fatwa banning the weapons of mass destruction (WMD)?

A: A fatwa implies a Sharia statement on a particular topic which is permanent. It is meaningless to say a fiq’h statement is temporary because if a scholar thinks again on an issued statement and comes to a result and issues a statement but in a new situation he ponders more paying more attention and therefore he comes to new results, then it does not mean that the statement changes but the scholar understands that the statement has been something else.

Sometimes the change in a fatwa is due to the new conditions of the special issue and that the issue has had a change of nature in a new social situation. In that case the scholar, regarding that the issue has had changes, issues a new fatwa though a second fatwa does not mean retrieving the first statement. Then the first statement is still credited for the first issue and the second fatwa for the second issue.

A third condition for the scholar to change his idea is Taqqiya (minor or benign falsehood in a matter of life and death) when the scholar issues the statement out of Taqqiya but in our era that is not valid any more.

We have to know that the statement that forbids weapons of mass destruction does not fit into any of the conditions above because firstly a ban on nuclear weapons is not a secondary title and it is not subject to any change in a course of time.

Secondly, a second ponder on an issue which might bring a change in the preliminary statement does not include a statement on nuclear weapons because the clarity in the ban on these weapons is so clearly proved that a second statement, as a result of secondary thoughts, cannot be imagined because a condition of corruption and danger is supposed to be the result of using these weapons anyway.

A ban on use of nuclear weapons has three clear Fiq’h principles, the first one being the principle of Vezr, meaning that the range of punishment should not include beyond those who deserve that and using weapons of mass destruction is an obvious violation of this principle in greater scales because it would indiscriminately damage a group of people.

The second law which we call it an attempt of corruption is a proof on the fact that following any path that might eventually end in corruption among people equals an attempt to spread corruption and is consequently banned.

The final principle on that is forbiddingness of using military weapons. It means when the disadvantages or execration of an act is greater that the advantages, then that act is banned.

Q: Using nuclear weapons has undeniable catastrophic outcomes. Then what if we are asked for only making and keeping nuclear weapons as a source of power for a show off against the enemy without using that for military ends? I mean why does the leadership fatwa bans using nuclear weapons as well as making and keeping them?

A: These are new types of weapons and there has been no similar weapon with the same range of destruction that it burns a nation leaving its trace not only on people but also on the nature. It is possible to control that now but it is not really guaranteed with the next generation and in another condition. What if it comes to the wrong hands?

On the other hand, producing nuclear weapons will possibly intensify a weaponry competition. Such issues are quite dangerous and have ever been banned in the guidelines of Muslim Imams (AS).

Now that human society is challenging such threats, it is our duty to keep our policies, views and efforts in line with purification of the international arena from Atomic Bombs. Intensifying a weaponry competition is dangerous for the whole world.

Q: One of the questions over the leadership fatwa banning nuclear weapons is if the statement is in fact Taqqiya (minor or benign falsehood in a matter of life and death). They say since Taqqiya is permitted in Shia Fiq’h, Islamic Republic of Iran has issued the statement, contrary to its real intention, only in a bid to defend itself against the enemies and it is possible that Iran violates the fatwa once it gains enough power.

A: Islam approves Taqqiya under some special conditions and has particular limitations. But the issue of weaponry competition is so clear that it is not subject to Taqqiya.

Hence the answer is that: A Taqqiya fatwa is acceptable when the issue, for which a fatwa is issued, is changeable, while the dangers of nuclear weapons will never change. This is a perfect and complete fatwa and not a Taqqiya fatwa. A Taqqiya fatwa is limited and can be changed but when a fatwa is issued in the international arena, the opposite cannot be proved to be right otherwise Shia fiq’h is questioned.

Q: In your view, what are the positive effects of maintaining international and political can the weaponry ban fatwa by Shia jurisprudents bring?

A: The fatwa by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, by itself reflects the humane, accurate and pure view behind fiq’h and we believe that our Islamic fiq’h is not distanced with rationality and temperament. On the contrary these two are transcended within our fiq’h.

At present when the countries and world powers are obsessed with winning a weaponry competition, an Islamic Iran loudly announces that it does not pursue nuclear weapons and that is very important. It will be heard, if it is spread more through the media.

Q: Some say that Muslims have to be in power and increase their strength every day. Does this notion, approved in verse 60 of Sura Al-Anfal (Hence, make ready against them whatever force and war mounts you are able to muster, so that you might deter thereby the enemies of God, who are your enemies as well), have any reference to nuclear weapons as a source of power?

A: Not at all because when Qur’an demands Muslims to be powerful it has no reference to nuclear weapons. This power is the kind that stirs others to achieve the same power and nuclear weapon is indiscriminately harmful both for friends and foes.

Nuclear weapon means a threat for humanity. Even other countries should not have achieved that and here we have to do our best to control that. I clearly deny that nuclear weapons are the source of power referred to in this verse.

-------

Hujjat-ol-Islam Ahmad Moballeghi, Head of the Research Center for Fiq’h Affairs in Iran’s Parliament

"World should seize opportunity provided by

Iranian Leader’s fatwa on nuclear weapons": An

Indian Dr.

Supreme Leader of the

Islamic Revolution

Ayatollah Ali

Khamenei has issued a

fatwa (religious edict)

declaring

the production,

stockpiling, and use of

nuclear weapons

are all haram (prohibited

in Islam).

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa (religious edict) declaring the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are all haram (prohibited in Islam).

Sujata Ashwarya Cheema, an assistant professor of political science at the National Islamic University (Jamia Millia Islamia) in New Delhi, says the fatwa has “introduced moral and religious aspects into nuclear restraint, which should be welcome by anyone who believes in responsible use of nuclear power.”

In an interview, Cheema said the international community “needs to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the ayatollah’s words.”

Following is the text of the interview:

Q: What led to the success of the talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (the P5+1 group) in Istanbul on April 14? What is your evaluation of the negotiations?

A: The Istanbul talks were successful in the sense that they ended on a positive note, although no agreement was reached or promises made. The fact that discussions were held in an atmosphere of cordiality was an achievement, especially in the context of the unending drumbeat of war on Iran from several quarters. The principle adopted by the P5+1 for negotiations was “step-by step approach and reciprocity,” which went down well with the Iranians. It underscored the need to address all crucial issues concerning Iran’s nuclear program through dialogue and mutuality as opposed to threat and coercion. Baroness Catherine Ashton’s assertion that Iran has the right to a peaceful nuclear program, and that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must be a “key basis” for future talks, was clearly a dealmaker, and went quite a distance in restoring the confidence of the Iranian side.

Q: Iran has said “the next talks should be based on confidence-building measures, which would build the confidence of Iranians.” How can this be achieved?

A: The first step should be to take the threat of war off the table. Constant talk of a military action, if talks fail, generates unnecessary pressure and hardens the position, although a time frame for reaching an agreement needs to be put in place. Both sides need to put aside their longstanding complaints against each other and focus instead on pointed issues such as enrichment, the Fordow nuclear site, and (providing) full access to IAEA inspectors. The issue of enrichment is a major sticking point that requires wise and judicious negotiations by the P5+1 rather than dictation based on preconceived notions. The catchphrase here is to go “slow and steady”, building mutual trust and respect, that are key ingredients to a successful diplomatic negotiation.

Q: Iran’s Supreme Leader has issued a fatwa declaring the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are all haram. Can this help resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear issue?

A: Ayatollah Khamenei’s declaration is both topical and timely. It has introduced moral and religious aspects into nuclear restraint, which should be welcome by anyone who believes in responsible use of nuclear power. The international community, represented by the P5+1, needs to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the ayatollah’s words. In effect, it would be a good idea to hold the Iranian leaders to them. If nuclear weapons are un-Islamic, why not come clean on the issue? The Supreme Leader’s statement needs to be publicly endorsed by the international community. This would give the Iranian negotiating team the necessary political shield to accept a tough agreement.

Sujata Ashwarya Cheema is an assistant professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies of Jamia Millia Islamia. She is the author of Civil Society: Democracy and State in West Asia.